Cork murder trial hears Tina Satchwell 'knew she couldn’t get away from' Richard
Lorraine Howard agreed that she had described Tina Satchwell (pictured) as having 'this Jekyll and Hyde personality' because they had a 'dynamic' relationship where sometimes they would be friends and sometimes they would fall out. File picture
Tina Satchwell knew she “could never leave” her obsessive, controlling husband before she died and was buried in her sitting room, her half-sister told the Central Criminal Court.
“She knew she couldn’t get away from him,” Mrs Satchwell’s half-sister Lorraine Howard said. “She confided in me that he would follow her to the ends of the earth and there was no getting away from him.”
Mrs Satchwell’s skeletal remains were found buried beneath the stairs in the sitting room of her Youghal home on October 11, 2023, more than six years after she went missing.
Mr Satchwell, aged 58, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Tina Satchwell, nee Dingivan, aged 45, on March 20, 2017, at their home on 3 Grattan St, Youghal.
Mr Satchwell was “controlling and odd,” and described Mrs Satchwell as his “trophy wife”, Ms Howard said.
After Mrs Satchwell disappeared in March, 2017, Mr Satchwell fed Ms Howard “a narrative,” telling her that Mrs Satchwell was violent with him.
Mr Satchwell also “fed her a narrative” about Mrs Satchwell’s mental health, causing her concern for her half-sister.
She said:
But this only happened after Mrs Satchwell went missing, Ms Howard said.
“Before Tina went missing he never once described Tina as violent or aggressive. All of a sudden, she was violent and causing harm.
“That’s why I was so worried about her mental state, this was not Tina, she must have had a mental breakdown to treat Richard like that," she said. “I never saw violence [from Mrs Satchwell]. We had many, many an argument. She never once raised a hand at me.”
Mr Satchwell showed Ms Howard photos of his wife with unbrushed hair and sadness in her eyes, she said. He told her that Mrs Satchwell had been depressed.
Her family had suffered a tragic suicide and due to Mr Satchwell’s “narrative” she came to the conclusion that she may have suffered a mental breakdown. That would explain why Mrs Satchwell had suddenly become this violent person Mr Satchwell was describing – throwing cups and being abusive, she said.
She agreed with defence barrister Brendan Grehan SC that she told gardaí she saw some injuries on Mr Satchwell. “I said I saw scratches on Richard’s back but I have no idea where the came from," she said.
“He worked on buildings, my husband works in building and he’s always covered in scratches.”
Although she had previously told gardaí about hearing Mrs Satchwell say that she had hit Mr Satchwell, she had only caught a snippet of the conversation many years ago.
“I walked in on Tina and my grandmother [having a conversation], I was 15.” Mrs Satchwell was laughing and said "I slapped Richard on the face", but Ms Howard said she did not know what the context was for this comment.
Ms Howard said that she had been angry with Mrs Satchwell after she disappeared initially. But this was because of Mr Satchwell’s “lies” she said.
He told her Mrs Satchwell had left him, and taken “all this money”. He told her his wife had been violent to him. “I blamed her for putting my family through all this stress,” Ms Howard said.
But Mr Satchwell was the person she should have directed her anger at, she said. She gave a statement to gardaí at this time, when she was angry and believed Mrs Satchwell had left voluntarily.
But her views changed when she found out that “she was dead and buried and he [Mr Satchwell] was calling to my house with all these lies.”
In a statement she gave to gardaí when she still believed her sister had voluntarily left, she said: “Richard was obsessed with her, totally besotted. He knew she was above his league. He would never go off with anyone else. After all she put him through, he would still take her back.”
She said that Mr Satchwell liked it being “just the two of them”, and that “Tina wore the trousers”. “He spent every penny on Tina to dress her up," she said in a previous garda statement and described her as “high maintenance”.
Ms Howard agreed that she had described Mrs Satchwell as having “this Jekyll and Hyde personality” because they had a “dynamic” relationship where sometimes they would be friends and sometimes they would fall out.
The pair had been “best friends” as children but she said Mrs Satchwell grew resentful when she discovered that Ms Howard’s mother, Mary Collins, was her own mother too. She had previously been told that Mary Collins was her sister and that her grandmother, Florence Dingivan, was her mother.
Although Mrs Satchwell had an excellent relationship with her grandmother, who she viewed as her mother, she felt “abandoned” by her own mother which sometimes caused a strain in their relationship, Ms Howard said.
“She would scream and I would scream back. She had a temper and so did I. We were both as stubborn as each other.”
She also previously told gardaí in a statement that she “wouldn’t say Richard was controlling but possessive”. “This was my opinion at the time but I’ve revised my views on the information I’ve received [since].”
She had not been a part of Mrs Satchwell’s life for some time and was not aware of aspects of the couple’s relationship. But more information has since “come to light”.
All evidence has now been heard in the trial. Ms Howard was the only witness for the defence. On Friday the prosecution and the defence will give their closing arguments to the jury.
Mr Satchwell has said that his wife attacked him with a chisel on March 20, 2017, and he held the belt of her dressing gown to her neck in a bid to defend himself. But his wife then suddenly collapsed dead in his arms, he said.
He said he was heartbroken and lost. He said he lay holding her body all night before putting her body into a freezer and later burying her under the stairs in the sitting room and concreting over her shallow grave.
Her husband reported her missing on March 24, 2017. Her skeletal remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried beneath a concrete floor under the stairwell in their terraced home in Youghal on October, 11, 2023.
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